Driver charged with manslaughter after open car door leads to death of cyclist

Driver of vehicle whose opened door caused Sam Harding to swerve into path of London bus appears before magistrates

Metropolitan Police.jpg

A 32-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death on London's Holloway Road of cyclist Sam Harding last August, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed.

Mr Harding, aged 25, died after being struck by a bus when he swerved to avoid the open door of a parked car. According a report in the to the Islington Tribune in the week following his death, a 31-year-old motorist was arrested at the scene and bailed to return at a later date.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed to road.cc that the man charged in connection with Mr Harding's death was the motorist in charge of the parked car.

According to a report on the Cycling Intelligence blog at the time, the door was actually opened by a child who was in the vehicle, although that is unconfirmed.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Traffic officers investigating the death of a cyclist in Holloway in August last year have charged a man with manslaughter.

"Kenan Aydogdu, 32 (1/1/80) of no fixed abode appeared in custody at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Corner on Tuesday, 31 January charged with the manslaughter of Samuel Jack Harding, 25, in Holloway Road on 6 August 2011.

"He was remanded on bail to appear at the Old bailey in June 2012 (date to be confirmed).

Aydogdu was arrested at the scene on 6 August and had been on bail pending further enquiries. He returned on Monday, 30 January when he was charged as above."

Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.

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bauchlebastart[124 posts]6 years ago

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There must be more to this story.
Seems a heavy handed response from the police for what appears to be a tragic freak accident.

On the face of it it does seem heavy-handed but then he was seemingly in charge of the car. I know I always warned my children about opening doors on either side of the car when I had stopped. They got a bollocking if they so much as moved towards the handle without checking. Who else is to blame other than the driver and how can it be excused as a 'freak accident'? If this is condoned, I can see it becoming an unfortunate precedent were similar incidents to occur.

It's unusual for action like this to be taken for opening a car door. Vehicle occupants often open doors without checking and my own experience of this showed the police to be not remotely interested in following up when I was injured this way, despite the fact an officer was standing metres away when the incident happened.

There must be more to this story.
Seems a heavy handed response from the police for what appears to be a tragic freak accident.

+1, looks like "the child opened the door" is not what actually happened. It pays to be very cautious when overtaking occupied parked vehicles. But the onus is on the person opening the door to ensure they can do so safely.

[[[[[[[ Yes,Chiswick...."freak accident"? Maybe, but seemingly caused by the negligence of the ADULT in charge of the vehicle. My wife got knocked off her bike recently by a driver failing to look in a mirror before throwing open the door. Was that a "freak accident" too? I'd say not.
P.R.

It's unusual for action like this to be taken for opening a car door. Vehicle occupants often open doors without checking and my own experience of this showed the police to be not remotely interested in following up when I was injured this way, despite the fact an officer was standing metres away when the incident happened.

[[[[[[[[[[ OldRidge...hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in that situation I might have asked the ossifer why he wasn't taking notes. Years ago, I described to a cop how a cabbie had twice swerved into me sideways in an attempt to knock me off, and when I caught up with him stuck in traffic, and asked him wot the phuk he was doing, he told me he didn't like my style of riding, and accelerated away.
So, what did the officer think of this incident? "Doesn't seem to me anything untoward occurred" he opined, stifling a yawn.
This cannot be allowed to continue!
P.R.

That's right, and the unlawful act in this case was to violate section 105 of the The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986: "No person shall open, or cause or permit to be opened, any door of a vehicle on a road so as to injure or endanger any person."

I does seem strange that this case should result in a manslaughter charge, whilst the woman in Yorkshire who killed a teenager in a hit and run whilst over the drink-drive limit was charges with causing death by careless driving. Could this chap's (apparently) African name have any bearing on this?